Mahjong Life and Living

Day 1: Saturday, Aug 31, 2019 Tournament Day 1 (round robin) and Dinner Session The round robin portion of the tournament was covered in the first day: three before lunch and three after.  Each hanchan observed the time limit of one hour.  Games normally finished through S4 well before that.  This day covered a bulk of the weekend's events. With 40 players, the event used ten autotables: eight AMOS JP2, one AMOS JP EX, and one older unknown table. Before the tournament begins, the opening ceremony covered a general introduction of the pros and Saikouisen.  Then it was followed by a performances of Japanese calligraphy and a guitar solo to get everyone in the mood.  Naturally, as soon as that was over, the tournament begins. My first game featured Rachel, Kazuki, and Kyle.  I've faced Rachel before in the North American Open last year.  In a practice game, I edged out Kazuki by 100 points.  Then Kyle took on Hiro in the Tornado Alley Open (Oklahoma) and won that t

My mahjong this year regressed so hard, such that it has fallen to 3dan twice.  On top of that, any prospect of climbing tokujou at 4dan was nonexistent.  This was not the case 3-4 years ago.  It was actually easy to do, but that has not been the case during the past 2 years.  I do not understand why, but the rank struggle cannot be shaken off. The current game count is at 4463 ranked games.  While it is tempting to round out the count at 5000 games, the cap will be at 4500 or 4600 instead.  Perhaps, I could just bring it back up to tokujou and end it there.  Then there's the end of this cursed year of 2020.  To match it with the end of Tenhou flash, the synchronous end might be poetic. I'll see how I feel about it.  Anyways, here are my numbers currently. I put plenty of my mahjong history into this account.  This is the account where I've taken stats screenshots roughly every 100 games .  However, it may be time to move on from it.  The game play just says it all.  The en

Due to  Kai's passing , I shall be taking a month long break from all mahjong play, effective immediately.  His sudden and quick death has me rather shaken.  This is added to the fact that Maki died six months ago.  Thus, I have some reflection to do. As a way back to mahjong, I will plan to play in the online tournament,  Riichi Montreal 2020 .

 I am fresh from my walk from the animal emergency hospital.  I lost a cat today: Kai (2005-2020). This was Maki's son.  Basically, about six months to the day after she died, he is gone too.  He has joined his mom up in heaven. Earlier today, he seemed fine before his vet visit.  So, I went about my day today without worry.  I arrive home seeing my dad cradling him, and I was told that something was wrong.  What was wrong? He kept his mouth open and breathing hard.  I was told that he fell down the stairs.  Heck, I even put him on the stairs at his favorite spot, only to find that he ended up the stairs momentarily.  Then he was down on his side, breathing hard, with a fast heart rate.  He even managed to get a hiss in because it must've been painful.  This was not normal, but I thought the situation was salvagable. Regardless, this was not normal; and we loaded him into the cat carrier.  Then we head off to the emergency hospital.  Ten minutes on the way, his fast breathing

 I keep chugging on but slowly.  This month of August has me rather despirited.  A lot has gone on in the Western online mahjong world, as well as Japan per usual.  To name a few: Cross Cup   AnimEVO   NAGA World Riichi Festival On a personal level, I cannot help but be despirited.  The month of August this year is heading towards its quick close, as with every August.  Yet I hang on; and I'll keep going.  September comes; and we head into Autumn and later Winter.  I hope everyone is dealing with the current Covid pandemic well. Here is a short summary to each event: Cross Cup .  This was an event backed by the Kizuna Project .  If there is one thing the Kizuna Project is good at, they are able to bring in activity from Japan, notably their connection to Saikouisen and other organizations.  So, they were able to set up a Tenhou based qualifier, where players play for a best consecutive 3-hanchan score.  Then the qualified move on to be drafted by one of four pros into a team.  I d

I had written a fair share of entries long before I ever started playing mahjong.  I did it via LiveJournal, along side with a number of online friends associated with a past anime community.  Connecting past to present, I shall link it here . Here's the thing: I lost both the password and its associated e-mail.  So, I cannot nor would not change any of my writing then.  I turn back to it once in a while just to look at it.   I may actually regret releasing this material, but it's a part of me.  So have at it. Despite everything that has happened so far, my general attitude to blog writing is the same.  I have my thoughts, and I jot it down: either directly typing into an entry or pen-paper.  Even now, I have a collection of incomplete draft entries to post.  They just sit there waiting to be edited, amended, posted, and/or deleted.  Plus, I have more on paper waiting to be typed, if I get around to it. Deep down, my general purpose is to convey how I feel and the thought

In the very last month of 2015, I managed to pull a +100 before the year ended.  The game was as follows: E 1-0: Shimocha - mangan tsumo E 2-0: I tsumo'd baiman. E 3-0: Shimocha tsumo (4000) E 4-0: Ryuukyoku: Kamicha and myself tenpai. S 1-0: Shimocha ron on Kamicha (1000) S 2-0: I tsumo'd for 4000. S 3-0: I ron'd Shimocha with kokushi. http://tenhou.net/0/?log=2015120818gm-0089-0000-f727c7f5&tw=2 E 1-0:  Toimen as first dealer called riichi on turn 6.  Then shimocha calls for oikake two turns later.  By this point, my hand was 2-shanten.  So it cannot fight at all; and no need as shimocha got ippatsu tsumo anyways. E 2-0:  Takame ippatsu tsumo for my ittsu.  Initially, I must've been thinking honitsu dropping 7sou immediately.  However, that changed when 6pin paired up then 8pin came along.  Then the hand became convenient with the pairing of the haku dora and the completion of the 89-man penchan.  Finally, dora became ankou followed by the immedia

Here is the translation to the Kizuna Project post (Japanese) provided by Kenji Baba of Riichi Mahjong Central. As for me, I shall look to make comments on this later, as I look it over.  In the meantime, feel free to look at this over yourself and develop your own opinions. Section 1: We’d like to share something that we were able to prove while running LAPOM, and that is “Nothing is impossible if we all come together”. It was generally thought that inviting Japanese pro mahjong players to events overseas and contacting them was a difficult thing to do.  I believe that LAPOM was able to prove that it isn’t difficult at all as we made this possible with in person events as well as online events. We also hear many voices in the community where people want more contents, and there is an on going project that we are working on, that will most likely surprise many of you. While the history of mahjong in Japan dates back to about 100 years, mahjong has been embedded in the Japa

The following is original text posted by Masahiro Yaehata (a.k.a. Omasakun) from Los Angeles Pride of Mahjong (LAPOM). The text was posted on May 22 in the  Kizuna discord .  A translation post provided by Kenji Baba of Riichi Mahjong Central  is up.  For discussion, feel free to join. それでですね、今日は少し現実と理想の違いと今後みんなで考える上での共通認識を作るためのお話をしたいと思います。これは僕が英語で書いてしまうと誤解を産んでしますと困るので日本語で書かせて頂きます。誰か翻訳お願いしますね。 まず第一に、僕たちオーガナイザーの目標は麻雀をもっと世界で愛されるゲームにして行く事です。 その点はみんなと同じだと思うの事を念頭に置いて読んで頂きたい。 とはいえ、僕の日本語の書き方にも問題があるかもしれない事は予めご了承ください。出来るだけシンプルにがんばります。 Section 1:   １つ目　『みんなで力を合わせれば不可能のは無いと言う事』 今回の絆カップもそうですが、らぽんで証明してきた事を少し皆さんとシェアしたいと思います。 以前は日本の麻雀プロを海外に招待したり、プロが参加する海外の大会などもとても稀でまずは連絡を取る、実現させると言うことが大変だったと思います。この点に関してらぽんでは過去にフィジカルとオンライン共に実現し可能である事を証明したと思います。 また、多くのコンテンツが欲しいと言う声がありましたが、これも現在進行中のプロジェクトですが恐らくみんなが驚く事になると思います。 要するに日本では麻雀の歴史が１００年ありポップカルチャーとして、プロ団体（競技麻雀）、専門のメディア、漫画ｘアニメ、戦術本、雀荘、健康麻雀、麻雀の関連する商品、麻雀教室、麻雀のゲームなどなど様々な業種に形を作り文化として発展してきました。 これらの色んな情報はガラパゴスとなり日本独特の進化をしてきましたが、現在海外に展開する事を望まない人たちは少数派であると言う事

I saw this mark on one player before, but I did not know what it was.  Now I do.  Majsoul staff have the privilege of marking players with a "verification mark".  This mark comes in the form of a gold paw as shown here next to my username: To simply put, my general activity was notice.  My activity in the Majsoul discord as well as frequent play went into account.  My participation in the first Catfood Bowl came to play; and finally, the work done on the Majsoul Tournament Guide. This along with helping a friend work through a mahjong project today helped made my day.  My next task is to rank back up to Master 1 and potentially qualify for the next Catfood Bowl tournament announced earlier today. Addendum the next day After an extra day, I had to think about this post and exposing a method to acquiring the same cat paw.  Something tells me: it was supposed to be secret, but I was not instructed to do so.  I could delete the text.  Instead, I shall give some enco

For the most part,  MLeague provided me some "sport" viewing.  I've been a general fan of sports, namely the NFL, the World Cup, and the Olympics.  However, I have developed a disdain for television.  With MLeague viewing free this year via Abema's site , it's been a pleasure watching the games live.  I could watch the games on demand within a week after each game day.  However, sport viewing dictates live viewing; or else it feels pointless.  The element of the unknown outcome makes sport viewing a special kind of entertainment. Who's my choice team?  I side with the U-Next Pirates primarily because of ASAPIN .  As a Tenhou.net player, he can still be generally viewed as "one of us".  Eventually, I learned that all four members play quite a bit of Tenhou. As far as riichi mahjong itself is concerned, MLeague is one of the best developments over the past couple years.  The league provides a nexus for the different professional leagues in Japan,

With COVID-19 still lacking a vaccine, mahjong remains bunkered along with most of the world.  It has been two months since my last session with real tiles.  I miss it.  For now, exclusively online is the way to go. In turn, we're getting an increase in online mahjong activity, in the form of tournaments.  I for one have been participating some last month.  At the turn of May, I have some tournament play lined up for myself.   So far, I have played in five online competitions since Easter.  A couple of these disrupted sleep patterns.  I play these for fun and for community involvement. This upcoming weekend, I shall be running one with my own club.  It is our replacement for the Anime Central tournament , which unfortunately had to be canceled.  The convention itself was canceled due to the pandemic.  So, this year, my club offers the 2020 Chicago Online Riichi Tournament . The day after, I plan to play with the Brazilian Mahjong Association with their monthly tournament.  Th

Lent had ended this year.  My pledge to abstain from online mahjong has ended yesterday with the celebration of Easter.  Despite the coronavirus , my church took religious services online; and it was a pleasure to be in observance of it. Looking at my online record, I have not played online mahjong since Feb 24 - the day my cat died .  Did I quit mahjong?  In fact, I played with some real tiles within two days after that day.  That session was my first with Northwestern University's AOTOMO automatic table.  It was a good day, and I needed it.  The laughs were good and contributing to my coping that week.  My last game session due to coronavirus was a month ago on March 14.  That was a good session to send ourselves off to comply with the "stay-at-home" orders. How enthusiastic am I in going back to online play?   Not all that much, but I will play.  After all, I signed up for the USMA  CV Riichi Online Tournament 2020 .  It is amazing how this tournament produced 1

On my main account in Tenhou.net, I have been taking screenshots of my stats from my main account: KyuuAA .  I tried my best to capture my numbers every 100 games, but I have forgotten to do so after each cycle.  Instead, extra games were played before I realize the next 100 was reached.  However, that is acceptable, as it is unreasonable for me to expect every 100 games to be noted . As I waved up and down along the Tenhou ladder scale, my statistics in general pretty much stayed even throughout.  The interesting note falls to my riichi rate which steadily increased.   Four statistical trains point to play style.  In the article " Tina's Tactics #3 ", she cited the late Kojima-sensei pointing to these numbers tied to play style: 放銃率 (Houjuu ritsu) – Deal in rate % 和了率 (Houra ritsu) – Hand win rate % 副露率 (Fuuro ritsu) – Call rate % 立直率 (Riichi ritsu) – Riichi rate % What do my numbers show? My deal in rate has been hovering above 14%.  I briefly dropped belo

By now, public reaction to the coronavirus has escalated. Numerous of public cancellations are everywhere, especially among the sport leagues and tournaments.  My main club event in Anime Central has been canceled as the convention itself is canceled.  My state of Illinois has ordered its citizens to remain in-shelter .  Even the Tokyo Olympics this year has been postponed.  Nearing the end of March, the numbers have grown significantly since this whole thing started prior to the New Year.  Cases are constantly being monitored .  For the regular person, we are either ordered or encouraged to stay inside and flatten the curve . Tiles and Hand Sanitizer As far as mahjong is concerned, mahjong groups have contributed by abstaining from mahjong meetups and turning to the Internet for their mahjong club activity.  My club has gone as far as March 14 as our last live meet up before hunkering down. Last weekend was our first session online with voice chat.  It was a fun day, as we

I have not practiced Lent in a several years.  Once I completely stayed away from the Internet, but that was many years ago.  In my opinion, Lent is a voluntary practice rather than a mandatory one, when it comes to giving something up for a period of time. This time around: I'll pledge to stay away from online mahjong play - until after Easter.  That is till April 12.  Can I keep away from real tiles?  No, that is my social circle.  Given a big change in my life this year , I need to at least play with real tiles to maintain my mental health. My Tenhou accounts, main and tonpuu , are safe due to recent game.  I won't have to worry about my Majsoul account either.  If anything, this huge break will be nice.  Hopefully, I return nice and refreshed with ladder ranking.  Many years of ladder ranking had rendered me utterly miserable about ranked play.  An even greater break will be a nice reprieve. In my meantime, my blog posts will continue.  I have plenty to think ab

As of 3:17 PM US Central Time, my cat Maki had passed away via euthanasia.  It is a tough pill to swallow, despite anticipation for the past year.  It has finally happened.  Her cancer had reached a state of infection, where it was finally necessary to end her suffering.  She needed regular daily doses of pain medication for the past couple weeks.  She did well, with spirits kept up and even surpassed her 20th birthday.  As for today, the time was right, as her behavior indicated as such.  She knew it was time to go. It was great knowing her.  I miss her already.  When I have myself more collected, I will write more about her.  For now, this was her sleeping earlier this morning.

Late in 2018 just prior to Thanksgiving, I spent a weekend crying. For a few days, my cat was not really eating.  We found her in a very weak condition, barely eating if at all.  Reading the situation, I had to make a decision: Do we put her down or not?  I had never experienced this before, so it was rather emotionally stressful.  The thought of her being dead so suddenly was too much to bear.  Had my decision gone through, she would not be alive right now.  When the "last hope" of her eating was dashed, my mind thought: "that was it".  My sister managed find some added information; and her nausea was relieved as the vet prescribed some medicine. In my tears and desperation, I did write out some words on paper.  One year later, I do not know where that writing went.  It's somewhere.  I have to find it; when I find it, I'll type it out.  The basic jist made me realize how much this cat meant to me.  Before then, I never really made this realization.  She

The following is text posted in Chicago Area Mahjong's blog just about a year ago. As the title notes, it's about Tenhou Tuesday. Any current edit is noted in parentheses: This has been an interesting development since the month of May. (2018) Every week since, a number of us across the country regularly play in the 7863 lobby of Tenhou.net. This regular session of online mahjong has been branded as Tenhou Tuesday . It took a life of its own, as we established a Discord channel where we normally converse via voice chat. In a sense, we are simulating the casual club play environment; and this environment provided players another opportunity to become mahjong friends. Personally, my first game was May 9; and I have been consistence in my weekly attendance. Needless to say, my involvement with mahjong has been overstretched. Yet, I keep coming for more. (Three of my club members) have joined some sessions as well. It was nice to see club members here participating too.

Mahjong is chock full of highs and lows.  This points to individual game instances to ranking trends.  Sometimes, the game makes us feel as if we're on top of the world.  Other times, the game sends us to the pit of despair.  It's an ebb and flow, that we as players have to deal with. Well, the idea exists in real life too.  We get our happiest times; and we get our saddest times.  It is all a natural course. On the highs, we feel like everything is okay.  Some highs feel perfect.  On the lows, time stands still; and we are faced with problems and despair.  Our responses to these depends on who we are; and I do not know enough about anyone to write about that.  As to my reactions, this is how I react to them.  This is how I see them. Under all cases, they are learning experiences.  All of it.  So, let's see how the learning happens in a future article.